Rearing zombie flies: Laboratory culturing of the behaviourally manipulating fungal pathogen Entomophthora muscae.

Insect pathogenic fungi (IPF) and insects have ubiquitous interactions in nature. The extent of these interkingdom host-pathogen interactions are both complex and diverse. Some IPF, notably of the order Entomophthorales, manipulate their species-specific host before death. The fungus-induced altered insect behaviours are sequential and can accurately be repeatedly characterised temporally, making them a valuable model for understanding the molecular and chemical underpinnings of behaviour and host-pathogen co-evolutionary biology. Here, we present methods for the isolation and laboratory culturing of the emerging behaviourally manipulating model IPF Entomophthora muscae for experimentation.•E. muscae isolation and culturing in vitro.•Establishing and maintaining an E. muscae culture in vivo in houseflies (Musca domestica).•Controlled E. muscae infections for virulence experiments and quantification of conidia discharge per cadaver.

Mineral analysis reveals extreme manganese concentrations in wild harvested and commercially available edible termites.

Termites are widely used as a food resource, particularly in Africa and Asia. Markets for insects as food are also expanding worldwide. To inform the development of insect-based foods, we analysed selected minerals (Fe-Mn-Zn-Cu-Mg) in wild-harvested and commercially available termites. Mineral values were compared to selected commercially available insects. Alate termites, of the genera Macrotermes and Odontotermes, showed remarkably high manganese (Mn) content (292-515 mg/100 gdw), roughly 50-100 times the concentrations detected in other insects. Other mineral elements occur at moderate concentrations in all insects examined. On further examination, the Mn is located primarily in the abdomens of the Macrotermes subhyalinus; with scanning electron microscopy revealing small spherical structures highly enriched for Mn. We identify the fungus comb, of Macrotermes subhyanus, as a potential biological source of the high Mn concentrations. Consuming even small quantities of termite alates could exceed current upper recommended intakes for Mn in both adults and children. Given the widespread use of termites as food, a better understanding the sources, distribution and bio-availability of these high Mn concentrations in termite alates is needed.

Assessment of Spatial Variability across Multiple Pollutants in Auckland, New Zealand.

Spatial saturation studies using source-specific chemical tracers are commonly used to examine intra-urban variation in exposures and source impacts, for epidemiology and policy purposes. Most such studies, however, has been performed in North America and Europe, with substantial regional combustion-source contributions. In contrast, Auckland, New Zealand, a large western city, is relatively isolated in the south Pacific, with minimal impact from long-range combustion sources. However, fluctuating wind patterns, complex terrain, and an adjacent major port complicate pollution patterns within the central business district (CBD). We monitored multiple pollutants (fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), elemental composition, organic diesel tracers (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), hopanes, steranes), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)) at 12 sites across the ~5 km2 CBD during autumn 2014, to capture spatial variation in traffic, diesel, and proximity to the port. PM2.5 concentrations varied 2.5-fold and NO2 concentrations 2.9-fold across the CBD, though constituents varied more dramatically. The highest-concentration constituent was sodium (Na), a distinct non-combustion-related tracer for sea salt (µ = 197.8 ng/m3 (SD = 163.1 ng/m3)). BC, often used as a diesel-emissions tracer, varied more than five-fold across sites. Vanadium (V), higher near the ports, varied more than 40-fold across sites. Concentrations of most combustion-related constituents were higher near heavy traffic, truck, or bus activity, and near the port. Wind speed modified absolute concentrations, and wind direction modified spatial patterns in concentrations (i.e., ports impacts were more notable with winds from the northeast).

Separating spatial patterns in pollution attributable to woodsmoke and other sources, during daytime and nighttime hours, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

During winter nights, woodsmoke may be a predominant source of air pollution, even in cities with many sources. Since two major earthquakes resulted in major structural damage in 2010 and 2011, reliance on woodburning for home heating has increased substantially in Christchurch, New Zealand (NZ), along with intensive construction/demolition activities. Further, because NZ is a relatively isolated western country, it offers the unique opportunity to disentangle multiple source impacts in the absence of long-range transport pollution. Finally, although many spatial saturation studies have been published, and levoglucosan is an established tracer for woodburning emissions, few studies have monitored multiple sites simultaneously for this or other organic constituents, with the ability to distinguish spatial patterns for daytime vs. nighttime hours, in complex urban settings. We captured seven-day integrated samples of PM2.5, and elemental and organic tracers of woodsmoke and diesel emissions, during "daytime" (7 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.) and "nighttime" (7 p.m. - 5:30 a.m.) hours, at nine sites across commercial and residential areas, over three weeks in early winter (May 2014). At a subset of six sites, we also sampled during hypothesized "peak" woodburning hours (7 p.m. - 12 a.m.), to differentiate emissions during "active" residential woodburning, vs. overnight smouldering. Concentrations of PM2.5 were, on average, were twice as high during nighttime than daytime [µâ€¯= 18.4 (SD = 6.13) vs. 9.21 (SD = 6.13) µg/m3], with much greater differences in woodsmoke tracers (i.e., levoglucosan [µâ€¯= 1.83 (SD = 0.82) vs. 0.34 (SD = 0.17) µg/m3], potassium) and indicators of treated- or painted-wood burning (e.g., arsenic, lead). Only nitrogen dioxide, calcium, iron, and manganese (tracers of vehicular emissions) were higher during daytime. Levoglucosan and most PAHs were higher during "active" woodburning, vs. overnight smouldering. Our time-stratified spatial saturation detected strong spatial variability throughout the study area, which distinctly differed during daytime vs. night time hours, and quantified the substantial contribution of woodsmoke to overnight spatial variation in PM2.5 across Christchurch. Daytime vs. nighttime differences were greater than those observed across sites. Traffic, especially diesel, contributed substantially to daytime NO2 and spatial gradients in non-woodsmoke constituents.

Students take the lead for learning in practice: A process for building self-efficacy into undergraduate nursing education.

To prepare graduate nurses for practice, the curriculum and pedagogy need to facilitate student engagement, active learning and the development of self-efficacy. This pilot project describes and explores an initiative, the Check-in and Check-out process, that aims to engage students as active partners in their learning and teaching in their clinical preparation for practice. Three interdependent elements make up the process: a check-in (briefing) part; a clinical practice part, which supports students as they engage in their learning and practise clinical skills; and a check-out (debriefing) part. A student evaluation of this initiative confirmed the value of the process, which has subsequently been embedded in the preparation for practice and work-integrated learning courses in the undergraduate nursing programs at the participating university. The introduction of a singular learning process provides consistency in the learning approach used across clinical learning spaces, irrespective of their location or focus. A consistent learning process-including a common language that easily transfers across all clinical courses and clinical settings-arguably enhances the students' learning experience, helps them to actively manage their preparation for clinical practice and to develop self-efficacy.

The effect of an inflammatory bowel disease nurse position on service delivery.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) management is increasingly concentrated in units with expertise in the condition leading to substantial improvement in outcomes. Such units often employ nurses with a specialised interest in IBD with enhancements in care reflecting in part the promotion of more efficient use of medical and hospital services by this role. However, the relative contributions of nurse specialist input, and the effect of medical staff with a sub-speciality interest in IBD are unclear although this has major implications for funding. Determining the value of IBD nurses by assessing the direct impact of an IBD nurse on reducing admissions and outpatient attendances has immediate cost benefits, but the long-term sustainability of these savings has not been previously investigated. We therefore assessed the effect of an IBD nurse on patient outcomes in a tertiary hospital IBD Unit where the position has been established for 8years by measuring the number of occasions of service (OOS) and outcomes of all interactions between the nurse and patients in a tertiary hospital IBD Unit over a 12-month period. There were 4920 OOS recorded involving 566 patients. IBD nurse intervention led to avoidance of 27 hospital admissions (representing a saving of 171 occupied bed days), 32 Emergency Department presentations and 163 outpatient reviews. After deducting salary and on-costs related to the IBD nurse there was a net direct saving to the hospital of AUD $136,535. IBD nurse positions provide sustained direct cost reductions to health services via reducing hospital attendances. This is additional to benefits that accrue through better patient knowledge, earlier presentation and increased compliance.

Interdependence of the volume and stress ensembles and equipartition in statistical mechanics of granular systems.

We discuss the statistical mechanics of granular matter and derive several significant results. First, we show that, contrary to common belief, the volume and stress ensembles are interdependent, necessitating the use of both. We use the combined ensemble to calculate explicitly expectation values of structural and stress-related quantities for two-dimensional systems. We thence demonstrate that structural properties may depend on the angoricity tensor and that stress-based quantities may depend on the compactivity. This calls into question previous statistical mechanical analyses of static granular systems and related derivations of expectation values. Second, we establish the existence of an intriguing equipartition principle-the total volume is shared equally amongst both structural and stress-related degrees of freedom. Third, we derive an expression for the compactivity that makes it possible to quantify it from macroscopic measurements.

Influence of operator experience and reporting time on the accuracy of esophageal capsule endoscopy screening for varices.

Conflicting data exist concerning the accuracy of esophageal capsule endoscopy (ECE) for the screening of varices. No study has examined the influence of operator factors on the accuracy of ECE reporting. The primary aims of this study were, therefore, to examine how operator experience with esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and operator reporting times of capsule videos influenced test accuracy. Twelve cirrhotic patients presenting for EGD had same-day ECE performed. The gold standard for variceal grade was determined using a panel of experienced endoscopists. Six novice capsule endoscopists, blinded to results of EGD, subsequently reported capsule videos for each of the 12 patients.Novice capsule endoscopists accurately identified high-risk varices. The mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for identifying high-risk varices for the six operators was 0.88 ±/-0.14. The mean sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive values for identifying high-risk varices for the six operators were 83%, 93%, 82%, and 97%, respectively. Years of prior EGD experience were not associated with accuracy of capsule reporting (OR = 0.9, 95% CI [0.74, 1.08]; p = .26). Time spent reporting capsule videos was associated with accuracy of capsule reporting for high-risk varices using British Society of Gastroenterology criteria (OR = 1.33, 95% CI [1.05, 1.08]; p = .018). Novice capsule endoscopists are able to accurately identify high-risk esophageal varices. Time taken to report capsule videos, but not amount of prior EGD experience, influenced capsule report accuracy. These findings may have implications for the design of further trials and the cost-effectiveness of ECE screening of varices.

On granular stress statistics: compactivity, angoricity, and some open issues.

We discuss the microstates of compressed granular matter in terms of two independent ensembles: one of volumes and another of boundary force moments. The former has been described in the literature and gives rise to the concept of compactivity: a scalar quantity that is the analogue of temperature in thermal systems. The latter ensemble gives rise to another analogue of the temperature: an angoricity tensor. We discuss averages under either of the ensembles and their relevance to experimental measurements. We also chart the transition from the microcanoncial to a canonical description for granular materials and show that one consequence of the traditional treatment is that the well-known exponential distribution of forces in granular systems subject to external forces is an immediate consequence of the canonical distribution, just as in the microcanonical description E = H leads to exp (-H/kT). We also put this conclusion in the context of observations of nonexponential forms of decay. We then present a Boltzmann-equation and Fokker-Planck approaches to the problem of diffusion in dense granular systems. Our approach allows us to derive, under simplifying assumptions, an explicit relation between the diffusion constant and the value of the hitherto elusive compactivity. We follow with a discussion of several unresolved issues. One of these issues is that the lack of ergodicity prevents convenient translation between time and ensemble averages, and the problem is illustrated in the context of diffusion. Another issue is that it is unclear how to make use in the statistical formalism the emerging ability to exactly predict stress fields for given structures of granular systems.

Jamming concepts in cold polymeric glasses.

The purpose of the present paper is to propose an idea to construct the volume function W for polymer glasses and calculate the volume of polymer glasses as a function of the compactivity X utilizing a statistical-mechanical method developed for semiflexible polymers. We also discuss the analogue for glasses of "tapping" experiments which show the validity of statistical mechanics and the entropy concept in powders.

Jammed systems in slow flow need a new statistical mechanics.

The slow dynamics of granular flow is studied as an extension of static granular problems, which, as a consequence of shaking or related regimes, can be studied by the methods of statistical mechanics. For packed (i.e. 'jammed'), hard and rough objects, kinetic energy is a minor and ignorable quantity, as is strain. Hence, in the static case, the stress equations need supplementing by 'missing equations' depending solely on configurations. These are in the literature; this paper extends the equilibrium studies to slow dynamics, claiming that the strain rate (which is a consequence of flow, not of elastic strain) takes the place of stress, and as before, the analogue of Stokes's equation has to be supplemented by new 'missing equations' which are derived and which depend only on configurations.

Granular entropy: explicit calculations for planar assemblies.

This paper proposes a new volume function for calculation of the entropy of planar granular assemblies. This function is extracted from the antisymmetric part of a new geometric tensor and is rigorously additive when summed over grains. It leads to the identification of a conveniently small phase space. The utility of the volume function is demonstrated on several case studies, for which we calculate explicitly the mean volume and the volume fluctuations.

3D bulk measurements of the force distribution in a compressed emulsion system.

In particulate materials, such as emulsions and granular media, a "jammed" system results if particles are packed together so that all particles are touching their neighbours, provided the density is sufficiently high. This paper studies through experiment, theory and simulation, the forces that particles exert upon one another in such a jammed state. Confocal microscopy of a compressed polydisperse emulsion provides a direct 3D measurement of the dispersed phase morphology within the bulk of the sample. This allows the determination of the probability distribution of interdroplet forces, P(f) where f is the magnitude of the force, from local droplet deformations. In parallel, the simplest form of the Boltzmann equation for the probability of force distributions predicts P(f) to be of the form e(-f/p), where p is proportional to the mean force f for large forces. This result is in good agreement with experimental and simulated data.